Breast Health

Moving Toward a Blood Test for Breast Cancer

Researchers are looking closer at a blood test that assesses changes in a certain gene's DNA. The test may one day be able to predict who's at risk for breast cancer years before it develops.

The test looks for changes in a specific gene called ATM. Women with the greatest amount of genetic change - a DNA process called methylation - were more likely in a recent study to develop breast cancer.

To evaluate the test, researchers in Britain analyzed blood samples from nearly 1,400 women. The samples were taken about three years before any of the women was diagnosed with cancer. Of the group, 640 of the women developed cancer, and 741 did not.

DNA changes

The researchers found that high levels of methylation meant problems with the ATM gene's DNA. The result was especially pronounced in women younger than 60.

Earlier studies have found that women already diagnosed with breast cancer have DNA changes on the ATM gene. The current study is the first to look at the ATM gene before a woman develops cancer.

Used in combination with other breast cancer risk assessment tools such as genetic testing and risk factor profiling, this blood test could help identify women at higher risk. This early warning could be used to monitor these patients and one day perhaps even prevent breast cancer from developing.

"So far, we have found alterations in one small region of a gene that appear to associate with risk of disease," says James Flanagan, Ph.D., at the Imperial College London. "So the next step with this epigenetic research is a genome-wide approach to try and find all the associated genes."

The study was published in the journal Cancer Research.

Always talk with your health care provider to find out more information.

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